this week at the FPL

There is bad news and good from the Front Porch Library, and even the bad news has a silver lining. We did not get the award from the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program, which means that hugging Michelle Obama and putting $10,000 into our kids and our library is not happening. The silver lining is that we will receive a document saying we are one of the top fifty youth arts and humanities organizations in the US–oh, if only they could join us on a Sunday when we are trying to organize that youth.

But the really good news is that our Leon High Key Club volunteers came through for us, staging a fundraiser at Pug Mahone’s. Four bands all played for free: Coma Kids, Attack on Tortuga, Cutting Teeth, and States Avenue. It was a great gathering–Kary and I went, representing the library and the older generation. When Michael Harrison, the Key Club member who did most of the organizing came over to deliver the proceeds we ended up with $711.30. We will be operational for a long time thanks to these great volunteers.

Today at the library we made a poster for each of the bands as a thank you. So what if they featured things like princesses (Vivienne is very good at princesses) and Jorge’s all purpose dinosaur drawing. We spelled the band names correctly and discovered that many of our markers are too dry do be worth spit (always good to know).

After, Kwili borrowed a shovel and a pan and panned for gold in the driveway–he was undeterred by the general opinion there was no gold hidden in the gravel.

We all ate cake with maple-bacon icing thanks to Mr. John and a supermarket sale table.

We also had a spectacular gymnastic show on the lawn. CJ 1 demonstrated his famous backflips, (To see CJ 1 in action go to our website:https://thefrontporchlibrary.com/

Olivia did first class cartwheels and Vivienne got the hang of a forward roll.

Thanks to everyone who keeps this effort going. We are often a hot mess, but somehow books get read, Lego castles built, bacon icing experienced and from time to time someone flies through the air upside-down.